As an already known disc autochanger, for example, there are the following [Patent Document 1], [Patent Document 2], etc. These Prior Art 1 [Patent Document 1] and Prior Art 2 [Patent Document 2] are summarized below:
FIG. 12 is a view showing an outline of the Prior Art 1.
In the figure, the disc autochanger 1 shown in the Prior Art 1 (Japanese Patent Publication (A) No. 2003-6974) is provided with a first disc holder 11 able to store a plurality of discs 2 and a second holder 12 able to store a plurality of discs 2. To secure the space required for a playback/recording part 3 to play back (or record) above or below a disc 2-4 desired to be played back (or recorded on), discs 2 are transferred between the first disc holder 11 and second disc holder 12. Due to this, even during playback (recording), insertion of discs 2 becomes possible and therefore user friendliness is improved. Further, by making the discs 2 (2-1, 2-2, and 2-3) stored in the first disc holder 11 and the discs 2 (2-5) stored in the second disc holder 12 and disc 2 being played back (2-4) at least partially overlap on a projection plane, the device can be made smaller in size.
Note that the reference numerals 4 (4-1 to 4-6) in the figure show the disc holding members, while 5 shows a load/eject mechanism of discs 2 (in the FIG., 2-6).
Next, looking at the above-mentioned Prior Art 2, FIG. 13 is a view showing an outline of the Prior Art 2.
In the figure, the disc autochanger 1 shown in Prior Art 2 (Japanese Patent Publication (A) No. 2000-48464) is a device forming a disc holder 11 able to store a plurality of discs 2 by members of the same configuration and able to separate them at any storage position.
The disc holder 11 provided in the housing 13 of this disc autochanger 1 is formed by stacking a plurality of disc holding members 4 comprised of members of the same configuration. Each disc holding member 4 can store a disc 2. An elevator mechanism 6 raises or lowers the disc holder 11 as a whole to change its position. In this case, the separating member 14 pushes apart the adjoining disc holding members 4 in the disc holder 11 selected by the change in elevation to form a space enabling insertion of the playback/recording part 3.
[Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Publication (A) No. 2003-6974
[Patent Document 2] Japanese Patent Publication (A) No. 2000-48464
According to the disc autochanger 1 (FIG. 12) of the above Prior Art 1, two disc holders, that is, a first disc holder 11 and second disc holder 12, are introduced. For this reason, this has the demerits that the housing 13 ends up becoming larger in size overall and further the cost is increased.
An example of a disc autochanger able to eliminate these demerits is the disc autochanger 1 of the Prior Art 2 shown in FIG. 13. According to this disc autochanger 1, there is only one disc holder (11), so the above demerits are eliminated.
However, according to the disc autochanger 1 (FIG. 13) of this Prior Art 2, in addition to the elevator mechanism 6, the separating member 14 becomes an essential component. For this reason, there is the problem that it is difficult to make the housing 13 as a whole remarkably smaller in size. Note that this problem will be explained in detail later with reference to FIG. 3 and FIG. 4.
Therefore, the present invention, in consideration of the above problems, has as its object the provision of a disc autochanger provided with a separating mechanism (14 etc. in FIG. 13) enabling a playback/recording part 3 to be inserted at the position of a disc holding member 4 holding a disc to be played back/recorded on and enabling the housing to be easily made small in size.